What's up with network tv?

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  • What's up with network tv?

    So I decided to take an hour off last night (I've got day job work that's leaking over into leisure time) and thought, I'll see what's on TV.

    Other than House on Fox, THERE WAS NOT ONE PROGRAM THAT WASN'T SOME KIND OF REALITY SHOW ON ANY OTHER NETWORK CHANNEL.

    I was flabbergasted. I remember when Tuesdays - even in the summer - had all kinds of shows (meaning dramas or comedies) competing with one another, even in the rerun season.

    I never saw so many reality shows being shown all at once. And there was nothing to choose from on the specialty cable channels (the ones I can get, anyway) either.

    WTF?

  • #2
    Re: What's up with network tv?

    Welcome to summer, repeat central.

    My current recording schedule goes like this:
    USA Shows on Sundays, 4400 and such. Entourage on HBO. Meadowlands on HBO.
    Closer on TNT, 9pm on TNT.
    Eureka on Sci-Fi, 9pm on Tuesdays.
    Burn Notice on USA on Thursdays.
    Doctor Who on Sci-Fi, 9pm Fridays.
    Rescue Me on FX on whenever.

    As for network TV, bleh.
    R.K. Bentley
    My Blog, My Design Studio
    "Little hand says it's time to rock an' roll." - Hot Fuzz.

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    • #3
      Re: What's up with network tv?

      Originally posted by TDWoj View Post
      So I decided to take an hour off last night (I've got day job work that's leaking over into leisure time) and thought, I'll see what's on TV.

      Other than House on Fox, THERE WAS NOT ONE PROGRAM THAT WASN'T SOME KIND OF REALITY SHOW ON ANY OTHER NETWORK CHANNEL.

      I was flabbergasted. I remember when Tuesdays - even in the summer - had all kinds of shows (meaning dramas or comedies) competing with one another, even in the rerun season.

      I never saw so many reality shows being shown all at once. And there was nothing to choose from on the specialty cable channels (the ones I can get, anyway) either.

      WTF?
      Network TV is pretty much toast, and you can blame it as much on the audience as you can on the Networks. The audience appears to be willing to tune into such idiotic shows as Survivor, the Singing Bee, and the rest of the third rate amateur hours that they sandwhich inbetween E-news type shows and clones of clones (the Fat Guy sitcoms). I also follow RK's strategy of locking into the very few selected newer shows of decent quality and other than that just bounce between Comedy Central and HBO.

      The Networks may have sown the seeds of their own eventual irrelevance by pushing everyone over to cable shows with quick fix trash shows shows that don't encourage loyalty to the program. If I had one prescription for reversing the current direction, it would be add some dramas that didn't cover the usual 3 professions and a few non-domestic Sitcoms that are set in a bic city. Preferably not in a boring town, and ideally had as much interaction with the more eccentric types of people as possible.

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      • #4
        Re: What's up with network tv?

        The only shows I'm watching this summer are:

        4400
        Hell's Kitchen
        Rescue Me
        John From Cincinatti (and that's On Demand when I get around to it).

        All of them Tivo'd, none of them live. Fvck network tv.
        Frosties are just Cornflakes for people who can't face reality.

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        • #5
          Re: What's up with network tv?

          I watch DVDs and surf the web. The only show I watch regularly is 60 Minutes and I end up watching Cold Case because it usually comes on right after and I'm too lazy to get up.
          "I ask every producer I meet if they need TV specs they say yeah. They all want a 40 inch display that's 1080p and 120Hz. So, I quit my job at the West Hollywood Best Buy."
          - Screenwriting Friend

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          • #6
            Re: What's up with network tv?

            Originally posted by SI_NYC View Post
            Network TV is pretty much toast, and you can blame it as much on the audience as you can on the Networks. The audience appears to be willing to tune into such idiotic shows as Survivor, the Singing Bee, and the rest of the third rate amateur hours that they sandwhich inbetween E-news type shows and clones of clones (the Fat Guy sitcoms). .
            but is it a "chicken or the egg" mentality here? if the networks didn't THINK we were all watching it, they wouldn't develop any new trash reality programming, hence the audiences would begin to lose interest in this genre... because frankly, the Nielsen's numbers on these shows are skewered and twisted, there is no way that many people here are braindead enough to like them
            "you have to write right, right?" -- Todd Gordon

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            • #7
              Re: What's up with network tv?

              I mean, some of them are the STUPIDEST reality TV shows I've ever heard of. Pirates on a ship? What next - pit wrestling? (Oh dear - did I just give them an idea, or is that one already in development?)

              There are are least two for comedy now - Last Comic Standing and one by Second City. Dancing with the Stars, American Idol, Canadian Idol (I just saw with utter horror that they've actually made a TV movie of the life of one of the Idol winners from two years ago. Oh, please.).

              Networks have saturated the market with these idiotic reality shows and then wonder why people are switching over to cable. Network execs really ought to get off the coke (I assume that's the issue, since the only reality they seem to be aware of are those fakey-fakey reality shows).

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              • #8
                Re: What's up with network tv?

                Well, I'm very curious to see what they've done with CAVEMEN.

                That's on the network's new season, right?

                I have to say last evening I enjoyed "The Next Best Thing" even though I rarely watch evening TV during the week.

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                • #9
                  Re: What's up with network tv?

                  Mad Men starts tonight. Set your TIVOs!

                  [UPDATE: Mad Men was horrifying. Awful. Disgusting. Despicable.

                  Sorry for the recommend. I was so looking forward to it myself.]
                  Last edited by pwrmyth; 07-23-2007, 11:24 AM.
                  I'm like an opening band for the sun.
                  -- Eddie Vedder: "Push Me / Pull Me"

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                  • #10
                    Re: What's up with network tv?

                    They're cheap, they're stupid, they tell no stories ...

                    Most of them glorify bad human behaviour (let's put a bunch of misfits and defectives together and watch them misbehave) ... all it does is appeal to the lowest human appetites.

                    Get 'em all in a house, watch them have sex then murder each other ... then we can move on to something Writers can write.

                    Which, sadly, mostly will be about fictional characters having sex and murder.
                    sigpic
                    "As human beings, our greatness lies not so much in being able to remake the world -
                    that is the myth of the atomic age - as in being able to remake ourselves."
                    -Mahatma Gandhi.

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                    • #11
                      Re: What's up with network tv?

                      I repeat, watch "HOW I MET YOUR MOTHER."

                      It's great comedy. I heard someone say it's a blend of "Friends" and "Seinfeld"

                      I agree, except the characters are way smarter than "Friends" and more likeable than "Seinfeld."

                      "Until the Lion writes his own story, the tale of the hunt will always glorify the hunter." -African Proverb

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                      • #12
                        Re: What's up with network tv?

                        Originally posted by yvonnjanae View Post
                        I repeat, watch "HOW I MET YOUR MOTHER."

                        It's great comedy. I heard someone say it's a blend of "Friends" and "Seinfeld"

                        I agree, except the characters are way smarter than "Friends" and more likeable than "Seinfeld."
                        The bar isn't quite high enough. I want the cleverness of Seinfeld, the craziness of Night Court characters, and the nobody is getting out unscathed approach of In Living Color. Guess I need to change the channel to Comedy Central

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                        • #13
                          Re: What's up with network tv?

                          Friends and Seinfeld as markers of quality?

                          Not in my book.

                          Bleh.

                          TV programmes really are dead.

                          <sigh>

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                          • #14
                            Re: What's up with network tv?

                            Originally posted by TDWoj View Post
                            Friends and Seinfeld as markers of quality?

                            Not in my book.

                            Bleh.

                            TV programmes really are dead.

                            <sigh>
                            The quality hasn't been there for quite a while. Older classic Sitconms were much funnier, but I would at least give Larry David props for putting on some pretty clever shows. It is kind of funny that even a lot of regular viewers now say Friends sucked, now that the hype has long died down and they look back on it. Basically outside of a few shows, the Networks gave away the franchise to Comedy Central.

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                            • #15
                              Re: What's up with network tv?

                              Originally posted by yvonnjanae View Post
                              I repeat, watch "HOW I MET YOUR MOTHER."

                              It's great comedy. I heard someone say it's a blend of "Friends" and "Seinfeld"

                              I agree, except the characters are way smarter than "Friends" and more likeable than "Seinfeld."

                              I think HIMYM is a blend of "Friends" and "Friends."


                              Seriously, though. It is like totally the Friendsiest show evar!

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